Life Expectancy of Chocolate
by ChopSuiFish
Summary: In the future, after Civilisation starts to crumble, one extraordinary Worker at a chocolate factory is sent back to change her life, but finds something she doesn't expect. Please give it a try, I'm sure it tastes fantabulous after a while
1. A Simple Plan

**A long long time after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is set, and Willy Wonka's great factory still retains its name, but no new sweets or chocolates have been invented for a long time, the Oompa Loompas went back to Loompa Land, and it is run by a committee of chocolatiers, with normal humans working the machines. One of the workers falls into the famous chocolate river, and starts to drown. What happens next? You decide (not really, I'm not changing my ideas. Reviews would still be welcomed and reviewers worshipped)**

**Disclaimer: I own the happenings of the future factory and world, my lovely Rudi, but the past factory? I own none of that, my pals. So basically, you recognise it, it ain't mine. You never seen it before in your life? It's mine.**

**Oh yeah, as this is only my second story, and I still haven't received many reviews for _that_ one, I'd be as grateful as cheesy sausage if someone reviewed this. Also, I'd love anyone who would care to read and review my other story. I decided to put this little FanFic up on the website mainly for publicity for my other one, which I love like a second heart.**

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Rudi pushed open the door of the room she shared in the workers' house building, then wiped the sweat off her forehead. She collapsed onto her small bed, and closed her eyes. Soon after her, she heard Jenny, who shared the small hard bed next to her, come in. 

"Rudi? I have an idea." Jenny sat on her bed.

Rudi stayed where she was as she spoke. What she replied sounded a lot like "Womna Turbull", but Jenny understood her.

"No! It's perfectly simple. If we push our beds together, we'll be less confined, and we can use the space we need. Also, it'll be warmer."

Rudi lifted one hand and flopped it down at Jenny, meaning she was too tired to do any moving around.

"The beds aren't that heavy, come on. They only need a little moving, and then we'd have a lot more space for other stuff. Please?"

Rudi yawned and sat up, straightening her back and pulling her shoulders back, then crossed her legs, resting her hands on her knees. Jenny sighed quietly in resignation, and then lay back on her bed to rest. She knew better than to speak to Rudi when she was meditating.

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**Ah, yes. Very, very short chapter, I know, but the rest is _so_ not fit for public eye, and I didn't want a meal a mile long. It isn't a very interesting start, I know, but bear with me here, it gets better. I swear by those big ol' cheesy meatballs up in the sky, it will get better! I have faith in it, that it shall!**

**Oh, maybe I should tell you of my other child, the one I hold so dearly close to my heart? It is based on the book 'The Devil's Footsteps' by E.E.Richardson. If you have read it, read on, if not, go out and read it, dagnammit! Richardson kicks unbelievable ass, though he always ends his stories with Cheese. You should also read 'The Intruders', which is his other book. They both kick ass. Anywho, my other story is based around Pete Hayward. Read it. It kicks ass, though I say so myself.**

**And, don't worry, I shall have that next chapter up soon, and hopefully it won't be as boring as this one is.  
**


	2. New decline and History of Rudi

**Well, I sorted this lil fella out quicker than I previously expected, and I thought I should upload it now, just to make it more interesting for anyone that might happen to stumble across these here lands. Oh yeah, if you want to see a better sample of my writing, please go to my only other story that I've put on the net, it's called 'Spiralling Hayward', and I really need some sort of outside voice to judge it. My head is going to explode with what friends and family that have read it said about it (Seriously, you should have read what I almost put here instead of this). Please just read it and tell me it's crap, as long as some stranger has read it and tells me, I'm happy. Especially if they burst this balloon that was once my head.**

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Anywho, on with the story!

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When they got back from working the next day, a girl they'd never seen before was sat on Rudi's bed. Another bed had been place in the middle. The girl had blonde hair cascading down her back to her shoulder blades, no visible injuries, and a soft, superior face.

"Hi! I'm Grace! What are your names?" The girl smiled at them, showing a mouth full of perfectly straight and sparkling white teeth.

Jenny stopped and looked at her. Rudi stayed still, standing in the doorway. "That's not your bed. That's Rudi's."

Grace raised her eyebrows at the two of them. "Well, Ricky says I can choose any bed I wish to. I like this one, it has the best light. I need light to help my beauty sleep." She wrinkled her nose at them. "Which I can see neither of you take advantage of. By the way, you really need to clean this place up, maybe a little paint, wallpaper. And scents. Ricky always makes sure my room is nice. And, please wash that dirt and sweat off you before you enter my room."

Jenny stepped towards her, threateningly. "Look, kid. I don't know where you came from, and I'm not that pleased already, seeing as this room is hardly big enough for two beds, let alone three. That's Rudi's bed. Not yours. And, if you want to fight for it, so be it. You'd never last a day here, anyway." She was shaking with anger. "We don't really have a choice about how our room is, but we don't want some little snob making it any worse for us. Now get up."

Grace smirked. "What will you do if I don't? I might have to get Ricky, he won't be pleased if someone's been mean to his little princess."

Jenny raised her fist, bringing it back to punch her. Before she could Rudi grabbed her, pulling her arms to her sides. Jenny looked at Rudi, and flounced off to her bed, where she sat and glared at Grace.

Grace smirked at Rudi. "What're you gonna do then? You're not strong, if you need that thing," Grace looked at Jenny "To fight your battles for you."

Rudi blinked slowly at Grace, her face expressionless and calm. She pointed at Grace, then gestured to the middle bed, then pointed to herself, and gestured to the window.

"What? She doesn't even talk?"

"No. She's worked here longer than anyone else, though, so I wouldn't ignore her. If anyone else finds out you're trying to take her bed, they'll all try to get at you. You're lucky she's a pacifist." Jenny hadn't taken her eyes off of Grace. "If she wasn't, you'd be broken like a rag doll by now."

"And why's that?"

"You haven't seen her at work yet. She needs to meditate; the men all work her like a Boxer down there, but she never slacks. If she doesn't get peace time before dinner, she'd surely explode."

"You do all speak strangely here. I mean, do you even know where the term 'worked like a Boxer comes from'?" Grace laughed. "And work? I cannot imagine either of you working, who would take interest in you? Anyway, I thought I was taking a break from work."

Jenny looked at Rudi. "Rudi probably knows where the term comes from." She then raised her eyebrows at Grace. "Well, I can't imagine you working, and since when does work need you to be interesting?"

"Since forever, duh."

"Forever, how? How does being interesting help you clean and grease the machines, turn the manual wheels, and do all that other stuff?"

If they hadn't been so tired, Jenny and Rudi would have laughed at the expression on Grace's face. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped into a neat little 'o', and she stopped, dead still, for a moment or two, fixated in horror. "You don't mean that kind of work? But- I'm not cut out for that! It'll ruin my nails and my perfect posture! No! Ricky would never allow it! He loves me too much!" She got up and collapsed on the middle bed. They didn't hear another word out of her until the dinner bell started ringing.

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"Dinner? What's on the menu? I'm on a low-carb diet, my figure and complexion go haywire if I'm not." She followed Rudi and Jenny out of the room.

"Smells pretty much like what it did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and so on." Jenny rolled her eyes at Rudi as she spoke, getting into the line behind Rudi, at the front.

"I can't smell anything other than grease and sweat. What are we actually having?" Grace followed them.

"A sort of lumpy grey oaty treat. It's called gruel, and, if we're lucky, we'll get a dash of cod liver oil." Jenny clapped her hands in mock-excitement, and then pushed Grace away. "Newbies go to the back of the line."

Once they had got downstairs and taken the small bowl of gruel that was supposed to fill their stomachs through the night, Rudi sat at her usual table. Jenny and a group of other girls followed her. She ate her gruel slowly, taking small spoonfuls of the food from the other girls as they offered her their bowls (it was seen as rude to ignore them, and Rudi did need food). Grace came over and sat herself at one of the seats near Rudi; ignoring the looks the other girls gave her.

"We're expected to eat this?" Grace saw all the other girls offering Rudi food, and wrinkled her nose. "No wonder they give it away, I wouldn't eat this for the world."

Jenny sniffed. "Everyone gives up a portion of their dinner and breakfast to Rudi or one of her close friends. It's customary, her being the oldest, strongest, and wisest. You wouldn't want to make an enemy of Rudi, or you'd have no friends."

Rudi gave Jenny a look, demanding in her mangled voice. "Plessm" Jenny nodded at Rudi, understanding.

"Why does everyone worship Rudi? She's not older than everyone here, she can only be around sixteen, and she doesn't look that strong."

Jenny looked at Rudi, who nodded before turning back to her food. "Rudi isn't exactly normal. She was made after the beginning of the decline of civilisation as an attempt to bring science back again, only around fifty years after the the founder of this factory had passed away. There are a lot of rumours and stories about her origin, but Rudi doesn't talk all that much, so we piece together what she has said.

"We think Rudi was the effect of cloning experiment, when scientists took homeless women from the street and tried to make her pregnant artificially with the DNA of many famous and great people, trying to make the perfect human. Only one woman got pregnant, but the scientists realised something was wrong, and tried to kill the unborn Rudi. Her mum ran away, still pregnant.

"The founder of this factory had passed away, his heir had looked after the factory for thirty years, then died unexpectedly of a heart attack. His wife had died and his one child had been kidnapped, leaving no one to look after the factory. It eventually fell into state hands, and was taken over by a committee, and run by usual human means."

"What has that got to do with Rudi?" Grace asked impatiently, absent-mindedly eating spoonfuls of her gruel as she listened.

"You'll see. Anyway, this was also the fall of civilisation, so much money had been put into trying to save the earth from global warming, the human race had barely enough energy or resources to return to normal, and life went back in time. The Wonka Factory Committee found that if they made live-in homes for their workers, they would get richer. They no longer got government funding as the people had decided the human race didn't need addictions to lead them astray, so they were looking for more ways to make money. People flocked in to work at the factory, as it meant free food and shelter, which other jobs lacked.

"After around twenty years of this, Rudi's mother fled to the factory for somewhere to stay, still pregnant. The WFC had no clue that she held, in her womb, the answer to their prayers and questions, and the future of the world. They allowed her to stay, making her sign a contract to say she would work a little, and when she had her child, it would work too, once the child was able to work. She signed, just glad to have somewhere to be.

"Rudi grew heavy in her mothers' womb, until she had to be cut out, for fear of killing the mother. When they took her out, Rudi already had the size and form of a five year old. Although Rudi appeared to be just like a five year old, she was incapable of anything other than blinking, sleeping, and eating. Day by day she grew, until she was a fully working thirteen year old.

"Of course, they questioned her mother, but decided to keep it a secret who she was, and had decided to keep 'caring' for the young marvel. They made her work, and found she was strong, quick, and smart- a little too smart for their liking. She asked too many questions, and got too many answers. She was repeatedly found looking through files at her information, or reading the over-seer's books.

"They beat her repeatedly, but to no avail. She stayed just as chatty, argumentative and rude as before. Eventually, after she had been working at the factory for two or three years, one of the over-seers decided to try and kill her. She was working the machine that used to produce meal-gums, and the over-seer had loosened the main bolts and screws. The machine toppled onto her, and either it damaged her vocal chords, or she was so traumatised by the experience that she couldn't speak properly after that.

"Once she lost her voice, she became the perfect worker. She was adept at most jobs they wanted her to do, but she didn't talk back or read documents. At least, she didn't get caught. The WFC realised that child workers were the best people to use, and began to get rid of most of their adult workers, and replace them with children, mainly girls, as girls were less driven, more obedient, and less rebellious. That's what has led us to where we are today."

"Wait at minute, you said she was about thirteen then. She's more like a sixteen year old now." Grace sat back, realising she had leant too close.

"Well, it has been hundreds of years. Even Rudi has to age a little over such a long time." An eighteen-year-old inner group girl said snidely, dumping a large portion of gruel from a younger girl's bowl onto hers.

"I thought she couldn't age. I mean, seeing as she's so old but has the body of a sixteen year old." Grace looked around. "Where is she, by the way?"

Jenny shrugged. "She always wanders off when people are telling her story. That's why it's always so hard to work out what the real truth is."

"Seems pretty detailed for a story you don't really know." Grace told her and turned her back.

**

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****Okay; just in case you're wondering, the phrase 'worked like a Boxer' is something I never heard said anywhere, it's just I reread Animal Farm recently (Okay, I admit, I reread it for school) and when I looked for something to say instead of 'worked like a dog', that sorta fitted. I could have said 'Worked like a Stachanovite' (I never remember that name properly) but it didn't have that ring to it.**

Please review, or I may start with the Blackmail, and the Robberies, and the shooting, and the wah-wah-wah. I.E., I'll hold this story ransom and not say anything more until I get some reviews. Plus, there'll be cookies and the like involved!


	3. A Slight Mishap by the Riverside

**Hello, hello. I'm back, I decided to update this seeing as it's just about ready. Haven't been on in a while, sorry. I have a BIG folder of FanFiction emails wiggling its eyebrows at me, and I just kept putting it off. There are over 500 emails for me to sift through, and I'm dreading it. But it's taking up too much memory. So I'm going to do it soon.  
So, here's the next chapter! And here we shall see the good man Willie himself!  
**

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Rudi was sitting on the roof, the place she loved the most out of anywhere in the factory. She hardly ever got to go there, as she never had time. 

No one else knew how to get up there, and because of that it was always peaceful and quiet, away from the rest of the world. In the summer, it was sunny and warm, and although it could get quite hot, it was always cooler than downstairs. And, when it snowed, the tiny flakes melted lightly on her clothes, and she fancied she could hear them, like the sound melting chocolate makes when it's being stirred.

But, right then, the air was crisp, the sky was black, as always, but patches of blue peeked through.

She lay back, spreading her arms into an angel, memories flashing before her eyes. A small, tired looking woman, with brown hair tumbling in thin clumps from her head, her eyes baggy and tired, sunk into a greyed face. A large glass box, falling down, closer and closer until it shattered, jarring into the skin and hair of a young girl. A giant room, with a green grassy floor, a brown river and waterfall cascading down the middle.

Rudi jumped up, her breath coming quickly, gasping for air that wouldn't come. She looked around, and shook her head vigorously. She paused, a thoughtful look perched on her brow, and then she nodded, seeming to make a decision. She climbed through a hole in the roof, dodging and darting her way downstairs, undetected, until she was on the ground floor, at the window facing the factory.

Footsteps were coming closer to her, soon whoever was making them would turn a corner and see her. She pushed the window out of its frame, jumped out, and put the window back. She sprinted across the grey concrete that separated the living building from the actual factory. She pushed the second window out of its place, climbed into the otherwise locked cellar, and put the window back in the frame. She walked slowly, gingerly, through the lower rooms.

No one had known about the lower rooms before, but with what was happening to the Chocolate Room, it was possible that they had found the entrance. Fortunately for her, when she pushed the trapdoor open she found herself in the hollowed trunk of a chocolate tree. She climbed up the rope ladder, and peered from the juicy mint leaves bushed at the top.

There were no sounds, other than the frothing of the waterfall, which was, in turn, dying away. The Chocolate room, which had once been lively and bright, was now infected with the bleak colours that had overtaken the outside world. Heavy trucks and machines had squashed the plants and grass, and little fences had been put up, marking danger zones, restricted areas, and other places.

Rudi dropped silently down from the tree, stealthily dodging and ducking between the trucks and fences until she got to the river. She threw a look over her shoulder at the main door, which was shut, no glass visible around the area.

"Oi, you!" She turned around, and saw a podgy man with a yellow hat coming toward her, angrily waving a floppy sandwich. He had evidently thought he was the only one left, and the last thing Rudi saw was his furiously surprised face before she toppled backwards into the river.

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When she awoke, Rudi was lying on the minty bank. She spluttered, and got up, taking in her surroundings. She was still in the Chocolate Room, but it looked how it hadn't looked for a long time. There were no trucks, fences, or other machines, the grass was lively, twisting and flicking playfully in a breeze that she couldn't feel. Bright flowers speckled the immense room in vibrant colours. 

Every now and then, Rudi saw a small figure dance along its way, wearing what looked like a toga made from bright purple bark. When she turned her head, she realised that one of these creatures was standing before her, and she jumped. It clicked at her, tilting its heading to one side, and she watched it, captivated.

It looked relatively human, but in a grotesque way. It had bright red ears that stuck from both sides of its head, covered slightly in straight but messy black hair, which tumbled down to the creature's waist. Two completely golden eyes stared at her in wonder, from either sides of a snubbed nose. It had ruddy red cheeks, but other than that, its skin was the colour of raw caramel, with a touch of green.

"Dagfurper! What is so important that you'd have to- _what the hell is that person doing in my Chocolate room_!" A young man, perhaps in his early twenties, marched across the grass towards them. Behind him, there was a glass box that looked oddly familiar to Rudi.

The creature, which Rudi realised had been called Dagfurper by the man, turned to him, and whistled and clicked. It gestured towards Rudi every so often. The man replied in a series of whistles, clicks, and another sound that sounded suspiciously burp-like.

He then turned to Rudi. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself? What are you doing here?"

"Tumnuh." Rudi shrugged as she spoke, unsure of how to explain what had happened to her.

"Oh dear, they sent a foreign spy. Either that or she doesn't want to tell us anything." He sighed, and turned to Dagfurper. "Keep an eye on her, don't let her out of your sight! Bring her to the old meeting room in a few tiddled minutes."

At this, the man walked hastily back to the glass box. Apparently he didn't see it, because he walked into it face-first and fell on his back. As Dagfurper pulled her away, Rudi saw the man get up. He brushed himself off, and got into the glass box.

After a couple of minutes endlessly walking through corridors and passages, up and down stairs, and around the rooms she could navigate with her eyes closed, her escort pulled her into the corridor that led from the main door of the Chocolate room. From the corridor, she was pulled into a brown room.

To describe it simply as a brown room wouldn't do it justice. The floor was covered mainly in dark brown rugs, woven with what looked like hair, but there were small portions of rich mahogany planks visible beneath them. In the centre of the room was a large rectangular table, made of a wood that Rudi could not define, but was a deep red-brown colour; it's four thick legs curving in and outwards on themselves. Six of the chairs on either side of it were suspiciously chocolate-like, the texture and colour of extremely hard toffee. And, at the head of the table, there was a throne, shaped and texturised like wood, but definitely made from chocolate, mainly milk with lines and swirls of dark and white. At the top of the throne, there was a 'W', emblazoned on a white chocolate sideways oval in hardened caramel.

The young man Rudi had seen earlier was sitting in the throne, and just around his shoulders she could see that the chair had a back of rich purple velvet. Before, against the bright colours of the Chocolate room, he had not seemed so interesting, but, sitting casually in the rich brown meeting room, he stood out vividly.

He wore a dark purple suit jacket and trousers, a black shirt, and his black hair was cut into something that resembled a ball haircut, but was a little too long. He wore a dark violet top hat, and in his hand he twirled a see-through cane full of brightly coloured sweets.

"What were you doing in _my_ chocolate room? Spying, perhaps?" He frowned when Rudi shrugged. "How did you get in here?"

Rudi knew she could have answered that if she had wanted to, but she didn't. She wasn't sure what had happened when she fell in the river, and she wanted to find out before she trusted anyone. The hollow tree and the cellar were her secret places, and she wasn't about to give them up.

"You are going to tell me, some time or another. Dagfurper!" The strange creature appeared at Rudi's side. "Take her to the torture room." He grinned maliciously at Rudi, then spoke to the creature in its own language. When he was finished, the creature led her away.

To be tortured.

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**And, ladles and jellyspoons, on that note, I shall depart. That folder is taunting me and poking me with soggy matchsticks.  
Wish me luck!**


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